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Finasteride 5mg and Its Uses

Finasteride is a product developed by Merck. Initially, finasteride 5mg was developed mainly for the treatment of benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). However, as the testing for finasteride 5mg was being conducted, reports of a side effect were given by those participating in the clinical test. The side effect of finasteride 5mg was actually beneficial because it was actually treating the hair loss condition of male pattern baldness that some of the participants had. This led Merck to conduct further testing on their finasteride 5mg drug. It was later that they found out that it takes less dosage, finasteride 1mg, to treat hair loss and not finasteride 5mg.

Finasteride 5mg is a highly effective treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia or the enlargement of the prostate in men. When the prostate becomes enlarged, it makes it difficult for them to urinate. Basically, this is because the urethra becomes obstructed due to the compression cause by the enlargement. Finasteride 5mg helps in relieving the enlargement of the prostate. When using finasteride 5mg as treatment for BPH, is it important to have regular blood tests to ensure that finasteride 5mg is not causing any harmful effect towards your body in the treatment of BPH. This test also includes ‘prostate specific antigen’ which is a checking for prostate cancer.

Another treatment that finasteride 5mg is also use for is the treatment of male pattern baldness. While finasteride 1mg is the dose necessary for treating male pattern baldness, some men use finasteride 5mg for treating it. While the use of finasteride 5mg will not accelerate the treatment process, they also do not use the whole finasteride 5mg at one time. Instead, they use a pill cutter to divide the finasteride 5mg pill into four equal parts. This makes each part 1.25 grams each. Since the dosage is at least 0.25 grams more than the finasteride 1mg that Merck provides in treating androgenic alopecia, it is possible that it works better. At least this is what is believed by those that use this form of treatment for their hair loss issues. Then again, one thing is certain for using finasteride 5mg and cutting it into four parts for treating male pattern baldness, it saves the user money as opposed to simply just using the given 1mg doses of finasteride.

What makes finasteride effective in treating hair loss is because finasteride basically acts as a 5-alpha reductase inhibitor. In case you are not aware, genetics, age, and hormones play an important role in the activation of male pattern baldness. The hormone dihydrotestosterone is the one responsible in thinning hair follicles until they can no longer support and grow hair. The thinning becomes apparent when you can see the scalp through the hair wherein it was not easily visible before. Since dihydrotestosterone is the product when 5-alpha reductase converts testosterone, finasteride is the one that inhibits 5-alpha reductase from converting testosterone into dihydrotestosterone. When the level of dihydrotestosterone is lowered, the thinning of hair does not happen and those that have thinned out but still alive are able to recover. This is why finasteride is very effective in treating male pattern baldness.